My biking story, in 30 seconds

I got an awesome new road bike a few weeks ago but it had those obnoxious little pedals that come with the bike and it was a little embarrassing to ride with them, luckily for me I got some new clip in pedals and biking shoes for Christmas (super awesome). Well I got them put on at the bike shop and I was super excited to try them out for the first time. What you may not know is that clip in bike pedals are really hard to get out of, and so when I was stopping at a stop light i couldn’t get out and i fell and broke my brand new bike pedal. Super sadness

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 at 2:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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I just bought my first road bike in 15+ years last weekend from a friend, and he actually sold it to me with no pedals and handed me some spare SPD clip pedals (I had them in an old mountain bike). I went and put on standard cage clips til I get used to the bike.

D’Arcy is spot on, it’s a bit like driving a stick shift. Before doing it it looks nearly impossible to master, and after a few iterations,. it feels so natural. But he is right to work on your anticipation.

You do want that extra speed boost you get from clip lift, right?

And do not tell D’Arcy my new bike is parked in the shed– I have to wait til I get back from a trip to take the new demon out.

You can loosen the clip mechanism thingamajig so that it’s easier to twist your shoe out. I also put a very light layer of oil/lube on the metal part on the pedal that locks into the shoe – makes it slide out much easier.

Also, when you think you’re going to be slowing down to stop, unclip a foot. I do this every time I approach a stop, rather than waiting until I’m stopping. Haven’t fallen yet (although I had a couple close calls when my shoes froze into the pedals… yikes! 🙂